Apple Recruited Pfizer Employees to Combat Piracy in China

By The Atlantic Wire

Facing a wave of knockoff iPods and iPhones in China, Apple enlisted
members of Pfizer's global security team to crackdown on the counterfeit
industry, according to U.S. cables obtained by WikiLeaks. CNN's Mark Milian discovered the cables among the group's recent dump of documents,
which include items on Apple's losing 3-year-old effort to prevent
gadget piracy in China. According to the documents, Apple recruited
employees of the pharmaceutical company for their experience sniffing
out counterfeit Viagra manufacturers in Asia. "The hunger for Apple
products is insatiable there," reports Milian. "That's why stores have
begun to sell the products without Apple's permission, while others are
hawking cheaper, lower-quality gadgets that are aesthetically similar
and bear the chic Apple logo." Unfortunately for Apple, the Chinese
government hasn't been a willing partner in shutting down counterfeit
Apple manufacturers in the country. "Chinese officials readily
cooperated with pharmaceutical companies on their raids, but that hasn't
translated to software, as Microsoft has discovered, or electronics, as
Apple is learning," says a source. "Whereas a defective pill could
cause sickness or death, a shoddy iPod has less dire consequences." Over
at CNN Money, Philip Elmer-DeWitt lays out the U.S. cables.